There would appear to have been two big dangers to the health of women in the 16th century. One of them was childbirth – if you didn’t die during, it was highly likely that you would do so in the immediate aftermath, mostly thanks to puerperal fever (a uterine infection caused by, shudder, tearing and a total ignorance of hygiene on the part of Tudor midwives – and the other was marrying Henry VIII. This is the story of the six unlucky ladies to have […]
“A True-Life Novel”
This is undoubtedly one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. And I have read a lot of memoirs! It helps that Jeannette Walls is incredibly talented, as I already knew from having read The Glass Castle and The Silver Star. But her subject here is really what makes this book stand apart from so many others. “You can’t prepare for everything life’s going to throw at you. And you can’t avoid danger. It’s there. The world is a dangerous place, and if you sit […]
An Unsung American Hero
This brief but riveting history was just released last month. Erica Armstrong Dunbar is a Professor of Black Studies and History at the University of Delaware and has previously published an historical work entitled A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City. In the course of doing research some two decades ago, Dunbar came across an advertisement in an issue of the Philadelphia Gazette in 1796 for the capture of President Washington’s runaway slave Ona Judge. Her curiosity piqued, Dunbar resolved […]
The Ten Dollar Founding Father
I’m not a great reader of biographies or even non-fiction. However, after learning so much about Alexander Hamilton through the musical, I decided to take a deep dive into the actual history of Hamilton’s life. I expected this biography would be interesting and informative, but I did not anticipate how moving and readable Chernow’s book would be. This book with 731 pages was practically a page turner. I’m a fan of pared down writing with no unnecessary diversions. If you read through my past reviews […]
A historical romance with hieroglyphs, adventure and a mongoose named Marigold
Rupert Carsington is the fourth son of the Earl of Hargate and has been sent to Egypt to get out of the way of all the calamities he’s been able to get tangled in at home in England and on the continent. He finds himself locked up in a dungeon jail after seeing a bunch of soldiers beat up a beggar in the street and deciding to defend the man, beating up a horde of soldiers as a result. His bail is paid by Mrs […]
“Dangerous creatures, wallflowers. Approach them with the utmost caution.”
Lady Pandora Ravenel, one of the late Earl of Trenear’s twin daughters is suffering through her first season. Normally she spends her times at balls sitting with the wallflowers, having invented some convoluted excuse for her inability to dance that evening. When a newly married friend of hers asks for her help to retrieve a lost earring, Pandora braves her fear of the dark to go out to the deserted pavilion, searching for the earring and getting herself soundly stuck in an elaborate piece of […]
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